Came across a bunch of things today…
- First, check out this new adventure game for the DS from Austria. It’s called Undercover: Dual Motives, and its the prequel to the just released Undercover: Operation Wintersun, for the PC I believe, in which you investigate some British research facility cira World War 2 for a Nazi nukes. You plays as two different characters simultaneously; as you directly control one on the bottom via the touchscreen, you can check out what the other is doing on top and switch when needed. Since it supposedly plays “old school”-like, you can expect to have both characters in different setting but working on the same puzzle. And hey, it just looks pretty cool.
It comes out in March, apparently worldwide.
- Next there’s Limbo, which looks to be a new puzzle-platformer in the vein of Prince of Persia/Out of the World/Flashback. Its looks quite beautiful really, very film noir-esque. There’s not much info other than the really nifty video teaser and some concept art.
- If you scroll down a bit, you’ll learn that there’s a direct to DVD animated film on the way that’s based on Castelvania! It’s supposedly going to be written by well known and highly regarded comics scribe Warren Ellis and art direction by the insanely talented (all around nice guy; we were friends in college) James Jean. The animate film (or series… I’m a bit confused on that part) will be based upon Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse.
- Pelican is supposedly developing a “Nerf-based” Wii-mote and nunchuck. That’s… actually pretty damn smart, cuz little kids (and adults as well) are gonna loose their grip at one point or another, and something like this is going to make parents very happy.
- The road to the PS3 keeps looking more and more ridiculous; EBGamestop recently had its big trade event for all their managers, and the word is not good regarding the sale of the upcoming system. Basically, not even the largest video game retail chain in the United States knows what the hell is going on. The system comes out in just over a month, and there are still zero details. All that’s really known is that the number of systems available at launch keeps shrinking. Last I heard was 300,000 across this country, which means even more people scrambling like crazy for it comes this holiday. And that naturally will lead to even more crazy headlines in the news of people bashing each other’s heads in for the system, making Sony even happier (though the only ones who will truly be benefiting are assholes on eBay).
Though I do have to admit, the boot-up intro for the system is actually very nice. Rather pretentious, but still quite pretty to look at and listen to.
- Screw the Dreamcast; its the Genesis that won’t stay dead. There’s a new Genny (actually Mega Drive) game that’s just been released. It’s called Teenage Queen and its basically a strip poker title. NeoGAF has all the details including a link that will show you what the Amiga version looks like, including glorious digitized tits and ass.
- Also courtesy of the Gaming Age Forums (though originally from the shmups forums, which to be honest are too hard core even for me) are some early screenshots for Nanostray 2. I never did pick up part 1… every said it sucked, and even though I will pick up pretty much any shooter regardless of quality (speaking of, Xyanide should be showing up in my mail any day now!), the whole use of the touchscreen sounded too lousy, even for me.
- Meanwhile, over at the Insert Credit forums come a new artsy looking shmup called Harmotion. I’m still not totally sure how it plays, since I really haven’t been able to check it out myself (I know… stoopid Macs), but apparently the goal is to outlast the opponent in a 3 minute space battle, though each fight is “a collaboration of sound and colors”, which I guess means that you created pretty shapes and sounds as you try to kill each other. And the screenshots sure are quite gorgeous.
- Going from pretty to annoying, here’s the game related product of the century: it’s called SmackTalk and I’ll let the official PR do all the explaining:
“As anyone who’s spent a little quality time in Halo 2 on Xbox Live knows, smack talk can be an essential tactic in any encounter. While some people seem content with a quick running tea-bag and the stereotypic “you suck, nyuk nyuk,” there’s an elite crew online who, emboldened by the anonymous qualities of Xbox Live, have raised the trash talking bar to new and impressive heights.
Snappy comebacks can save your life and reputation if you’re unfortunate enough to run into one of this crew, but annunciating coherently can often be difficult in the cacophonous heat of battle. As such, GameDr and Digital Innovations have developed the SmackTalk, a smallish voice-recording dongle that hooks into the 360 controller and headset. Users can record up to five clips via their headset’s microphone, which become immediately accessible for playback via the five buttons on the SmackTalk unit on Xbox Live’s voice service.”
So it’s basically for shit talkers online who are either too lazy or uncreative to come up with their own ear-greating bullshit. That’s just fucking awesome. And the thing is $30 too. Yet another reason why I stay the hell away from online gaming.
- Check out these brand spankin’ new box arts. First off, Gitaroo Man for the PSP, which thankfully retains the original Japanese art…
… too bad I heard it controls like absolute crap, thanks to the PSP’s analogue nub of course. Next, here’s a brand new pair of box arst courtesy of Q Entertainment. The American cover for Every Extend Extra, which retains the sexiness of the UK edition, and the Euro cover for Lumines 2…
… Here’s one from my old company Ubi Soft, featuring its much beloved mascot Rayman, wearing pants for some dumb reason…
… That’s not very super cool, IMHO.
And finally, those crazy folks from Phoneix are at it again, this time with a pair of game that driving aficionados can do without…
… Ridge Racer 7 what?
- Hey, time for more crazy crap from video game hackers! This time feature Sonic dressed as Mario and killing his lousy cousin (or brother, or son, or clone, or whatever) Shadow…
- Speaking of Sonic, DigitalLife comes to NYC once again next week, and I just got my press itinerary. The I’m expecting the highlight of the day to be at 12:45 when the following takes place…
12:45 PM: SONIC the HEDGEHOG, BIRTHDAY PARTY and CAKE – Lobby of the Registration Area – Join actress Lacey Chabert and help us celebrate the 15th birthday of this beloved character as he blows out the candles on his giant birthday cake.
Dude, birthday cake. Alongside Sonic the Hedgehog. I am SO there.
